The Last Kind Words Saloon

Oh, Larry. How I miss the Larry McMurtry of "Lonesome Dove" and "Texasville". Even the Berrybender series wasn't *too* bad. Not great, but not bad. "The Last Kind Words Saloon", however...sigh. I can't bring myself to say anything bad about McMurtry, because I love so many of his books so much and they've brought me so many hours of pure pleasure, I can forgive him even tepid books like this one. I still remember the day I bought "Comanche Moon", and sitting there in the car, I couldn't even wait to get it home, just opened it up and saw Call and Gus's names there on the page and felt like the world was absolutely perfect at that moment. I read it, devoured it really, then turned around and read it all over again. "It may be over, but it wasn't fun" -- Captain Woodrow F. Call, the last words he spoke in that book. How I cried! How I laughed! I'm being melodramatic, I know, but I sincerely did! Before I started working and going to college, I used to reread "Lonesome Dove" once or twice a year. I miss having the time to do that.

You Can Date Boys When You're Forty

I can always count on Dave Barry for a quick funny read, and his latest, "You Can Date Boys When You're Forty" didn't disappoint. He is so good at finding the humor in situations. I loved his story about taking his teenaged daughter to a Justin Bieber concert. Brave man! His story about visiting Israel was both funny and sweet.

Midnight Crossroad

Charlaine Harris's new series (at least, I *think* it's supposed to be a series) "Midnight Crossroad", is about a small Texas town named Midnight where everyone has a secret and everyone is just a little bit peculiar. Manfred moves to town, and quickly discovers he fits right in with the tight lipped citizens of Midnight. The pawn shop owner, Bobo, is depressed over his girlfriend Aubrey's abrupt departure. While out picnicking, a group of Midnighters find Aubrey's body. Secrets start to come out, and the town pulls together to protect their own. It was bad, it just wasn't all that interesting to me. I feel like I do reading the Diane Mott Davidson Goldy series: it's habit now, and even though they're not that great I keep reading them. So I'll probably keep reading this series, too. Oh well. At least it's a quick read :)

Here We Are Now; Worst.Person.Ever; Johnny Carson; And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks

"Here We Are Now" by Charles R. Cross was a quick look at the lasting impact of Kurt Cobain on music and pop culture in general, 20 years after his death (in case you didn't feel old enough already...). I of course had to skip over all the suicide nonsense, but the rest of the book was interesting.

"Worst.Person.Ever" by Douglas Coupland was hilarious. I remember reading "Microserfs"  when it came out almost 20 years ago (again, with the feeling old...) and adoring it. I've read most of Coupland's work since, and some have been okay and others better, but this one was really great. Raymond Grunt is hired to work the camera on a Survivor type show set on a remote island. Raymond doesn't understand why awful things keep happening to him, but they are well deserved. It was very darkly humorous.

"Johnny Carson" by Henry Bushkin was revelation. I don't know much about Carson, but boy, he certainly sounds like a not very pleasant individual. Bushkin was his lawyer and friend, business partner and confidant, for over two decades before Carson tossed him aside over a misunderstanding. The book felt a little bit like Bushkin was finally getting the chance to tell his side of the story, but I get that. Anyway, Carson died alone, estranged from his wife and sons, with no real friends in the world. Very sad ending to great entertainer.

"And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks" by Williams S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac was much better than I was expecting. After reading that bio of Burroughs a few weeks ago I was keen to read some of his fiction, and this was one I hadn't read. It was published in 2008. Burroughs and Kerouac collaborated on it in the mid 1940s. Based on true events, it tells the story of Lucien Carr and David Kammerer (their real names, they used different ones in the book). Kerouac wrote the Mike Ryko scenes and Burroughs wrote the Will Dennison scenes, telling about their friends and their reactions to the murder of one by the other from their points of view. Out of respect for Lucien Carr, who went to prison and rehabilitated his life, the book wasn't published until after his death, although Burroughs and Kerouac tried to publish it earlier, when they wrote it. It was so readable, much more so than many of their individual works I've read in the past ("On the Road", I'm looking at you). I was surprised at how clean and straightforward the storytelling was, and how much I enjoyed both of their writing styles. What made it doubly fascinating for me was knowing how much Burroughs despised Kerouac towards the end of Kerouac's life, and how he didn't want anything to do with him. That they were able to create this together was impressive. 

Five Love Languages

I finished Dr. Gary Chapman's "Five Love Languages" yesterday. It was very interesting. According to him, everyone expresses love in one of five different languages: words of affirmation, quality time, receiving gifts, acts of service, and physical touch. For instance, one person might feel more loved when their partner spends time with them, while another person might prefer if their partner does the dishes or the laundry. It was very enlightening, especially when you realize that you tend to love your partner in your love language, which might not be theirs, so even though you think you're showing them how much you love them, they aren't getting it because it's not how they understand or receive love. It made a lot of sense.

Search Party

Valerie Trueblood's collection of short stories "Search Party" was nominated for the PEN/Faulkner award for fiction this year. She didn't win, but this collection was pretty good, and I'm not normally a big short story fan. None of the longer ones felt too long, although there were some really short ones I wished were longer, just because I was enjoying them. Very nicely written, moving and sad.

At Home

Another delightful book by Bill Bryson, "At Home: A Short History of a Private Life". It was utterly charming. He went, room by room, through a house and described the history of how the modern home came to be: the plumbing, heating, lighting, windows, stairs, paint, wallpaper, etc. Under a less skillful writer it would have been a dreadful bore, but Bryson has such a great talent for teasing out the interesting facts and writing with humor that the book was just wonderful. I'm trying to ration myself so I don't read everything he's written *too* quickly, but it's tough!